Connecting Pamlico through the Arts

In the past weeks, over 7,000 acres of land burned with fire in western North Carolina. Pamlico Arts Council responded with music, rain dances and donations for their annual membership drive and those affected.

The change in plans may have extinguished the dragon tradition, but it did not put a damper on the Council’s goals. More than 100 Pamlico residents attended the rain dance, which organizers used as an opportunity to unite the community. A live band played rockabilly hits from Elvis Presley to Johnny Cash, as the attendees danced, watched and sang along.

“I don't care if it's music, storytelling, dancing or visual art, the true arts brings everybody together,” said Angie Propst, the Council president and co-owner of Mariner Realty.

This, organizers emphasized, is what the Pamlico Arts Council strives to do. Established in and operated since 1977, it is a nonprofit dedicated to fostering arts in the county, and bringing the community together through those arts. Most of the events are free and open to the public, as the volunteer Council’s funding comes mostly from state grants and membership dues.

“Our mission is to ensure that from the schools to our senior citizens that everybody has access to art in all its forms,” said Jill Harris, the operations supervisor of Pamlico’s First Citizens Bank and a member of the board of directors within the council. Harris, who joined the Council a year ago and was instrumental in organizing its first oral storytelling event, is an artist herself, having played musical instruments all her life.

Just last month, the group of about 200 members held its first oral storytelling event in their almost 50 year history, and their next event will be the “Gospel, Blues & Rocking BBQ.”

The “Remembrances of Pamlico Past” event hosted on Feb. 22, saw more than 100 attendees and featured the testimonies of two storytellers whose families go back generations in Pamlico.

Bill Fentress, the county’s Finance Officer and one of the locals whose testimony was featured, wrote a book dedicated to his mother, exploring his childhood in the county.

When Fentress’ father died at a young age from cancer, his mother, who was a high school biology teacher, was left to run his father’s farm operations. Because of her hard work and teachings, Fentress views his mother as a role model and regards his childhood as one others might appreciate reading about.

“My goal, at this stage of my life, is to write something that other people enjoy reading, that hits emotionally,” he said. Fentress recounted the support he received from a hospitalized man in Ohio who read his work and expressed gratitude. “This makes it all worth it to me,” he said.

Sheila Cantine, a retired computer programmer and the other local whose testimony was featured, traced her family's genealogy back centuries in Beaufort and present-day Pamlico county. At the event, she recounted the stories of the women in her family.

“It was exhilarating,” Cantine gushed. “I was able to give the women in my family a voice because they never had a voice before. All of our history is not written in books, and marginalized,” she added, explaining that this is especially the case for African American women.

From storytelling to music, Pamlico Arts Council strives to connect Oriental to the rest of the county through art by developing programming that the county hasn’t seen before. Propst, the Council’s president, said she wants the audiences to feel "pizzazzed” when engaging with their events.

“No one wants old, stale programs,” she told Down in the County. “You’ve got to keep your programs fresh and new.”

One way that the council does this is through events such as “Family Fun Day,” in which families learn all about the art of circus theatrics.

Raised in Wyoming, Kim Daniels, a pharmacist and co-owner of The Silos, said that she came to serve on the Council’s board of directors in order to help families engage with the community through arts.

Daniels, who raised her children in Pamlico, wished that when her kids were young, she could have participated in more events like the rain dance, which was hosted on The Silos’s property.

In the end, Propst described the rain dance as a success, because it joined community members through the experience of art, which is exactly what the Council aims to do.

“We’re bringing everyone together, we're hearing each other's story,” she said. “We’re telling the tale, we're celebrating together and we're appreciating each other's heritage and history.”

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